Iberdrola will replace Lada and Velilla’s coal thermal plants with wind energy and solar power

The president of Iberdrola has proposed to the Ministry the closure of the Lada (Asturias) and Velilla (Palencia) plants and instead build 420 wind power and photovoltaic megawatts in the Velilla area and four ecological wind farms in Lada, which would add some 130 MW

The president of Iberdrola, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, has announced that the company closes its last two coal plants in the world, located in northern Spain, and will replace them with state-of-the-art wind turbines and solar energy.

Specifically, Iberdrola has proposed to the Ministry of Energy the closure of the Lada (Asturias) and Velilla (Palencia) plants, building 420 wind energy and photovoltaic megawatts instead in the Velilla area and four ecological farm parks in the Lada area, which they would add about 130 MW.

“For us, the energy transition that we have 20 years ago is not a thing now. We take the Kyoto Protocol seriously and we begin to do all the necessary things for that transition from the sea with the people who will be affected,” Galán stressed this Sunday in the framework of the start of COP25.

This closure does not affect employment since Iberdrola relocates 100% of the workforce, which is destined to the dismantling laboratories of both plants, which extends for four years from the date of approval of the closure by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, as in other renewable installations of the company.

“We have been creating miles of jobs for people who are working on future technologies while we were closing our plants,” Galán said.

In particular, Iberdrola will have closed in 15 years a total of 17 coal and fuel oil thermal power plants in different countries, “and has not had a single social or union problem,” said Galán.

Iberdrola has invested only in Spain more than 25,000 million euros, mainly to the deployment of clean energy, the development of storage technologies and to promote a more robust and intelligent electricity distribution network with the aim of more renewable integration and more distributed resources. These investments have generated more than 80,000 jobs in the country, according to Iberdrola.

“We must continue, this is everyone’s topic,” said Galán, who has congratulated himself that “now everyone” wants to bet on green energy.

“I am very happy that suddenly everyone wants to transform into green. I am delighted because I have been my struggle for more than 20 years, trying to make this planet greener and leave the best planet to future generations,” he concluded .